The Pure Uncut.

February 11, 2014February 10, 2014

Why Marcus Was Right to React, But Not In The Manner That He Did.

If you are a basketball fan, I am sure you’ve either seen or heard about Marcus Smart shoving an opposing fan (Jeff Orr) during a college basketball game this past weekend. To be clear Marcus was in the wrong for how he reacted, regardless of what Orr said, Smart was wrong for shoving him. Now this doesn’t absolve Orr of any wrong doing, but it was Smart’s responsibility to remain composed, even in the face of heckling. Shit, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the first time that Smart was heckled and it sure won’t be the last. Even though what Smart did was understandable, anyone who’s ever played a sport in front of a hostile crowd has had that urge to just slap the shit out of someone, but you just don’t do it.

I won’t beat a dead horse and put all the blame on Smart, after all his reaction was in response to someone who crossed the line. Unlike Richard Sherman’s outburst after defeating the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship, Smart’s lost of composure was directly tied to someone who overstepped the boundary of being a fan and an asshole. According to media outlets, Orr supposedly made some racially insensitive remarks – go back to Africa n*gger. If this is true, how could Smart not feel some kind of way? So again you can see why I said what he did was understandable.

Fans like Orr, sometimes feel that just because they pay a player’s salary, they have the right to be disrespectful and say whatever they want, without repercussions. And even though Smart is a college student, you can imagine how an overzealous fan may feel a sense of entitlement, knowing that no matter what they say or do, a college athlete is not going do anything to jeopardize his playing time, scholarship or potential draft status.

Smart is a potential top 5 pick in this year’s NBA draft, but this incident may cause teams to think twice about drafting a hot head, which could cause him to slip in the draft.

Again it was up to Smart to not let his emotions get the best of him in a manner that would cause him to make physical contact. The truth of the matter is, there will always be another Orr, there’s no way around it. Someone who would like nothing better than to get under your skin and cause you to lose your cool, if he/she thinks it can help their team.

I’m not mad at him for reacting, especially if it is true what Orr said, but there were better ways for him to do it. Ways like exchanging words in trash talk, ignoring Orr, or just simply walking away. Something that wouldn’t effect his playing time or potentially his future.

What do you think? Do you think Smart was right in pushing Orr? Or do you think he should have handled it another way? What would you have done?

5 thoughts on “Why Marcus Was Right to React, But Not In The Manner That He Did.”

“Fans like Orr, sometimes feel that just because they pay a player’s salary, they have the right to be disrespectful and say whatever they want, without repercussions. And even though Smart is a college student, you can imagine how an overzealous fan may feel a sense of entitlement, knowing that no matter what they say or do, a college athlete is not going do anything to jeopardize his playing time, scholarship or potential draft status.

Great post, as we were just talking about this at work last night. But the paragraph above hits it on the head: this guy knew he could do pretty much whatever he wanted, thinking that this player would do nothing to mess up his career. Bu he was not prepared to get got and get the Ben Wallace shove from Smart. I don’t agree at all that he put his hands on the fan, but I understand his emotions.

Yeah, again I’m not putting all the blame on Smart, but unfortunately we (blacks) don’t have the luxury of reacting a certain kind of way, without being chastised. How can we/you not feel some type of way about hearing a racist remark? Unfortunately we are expected to not react, for fear of being called a thug or worse, even if it’s justified.

Although it’s easy to say he should have handled it differently, in the heat of the moment of hearing a racist term being directed at you can be difficult to simply let it go without an explosive reaction. The NCAA needs to create rules that would impose penalties on fans like Orr. Too many people are centering their attention on Smart’s reaction but are not placing enough attention on the racism that triggered his response.

I whole heartedly agree. I wasn’t trying to say he wasn’t justified, but unfortunately we (blacks) don’t have the luxury of reacting to a situation without scrutiny. Had it been me, I may have done the same thing. But the reality is no matter what we are held to a unfair standard, we are expected to take all types of shit, and not react. Me saying he was wrong, was because his future depends on situations like this. As much as we like to think that our talents alone will shape our future fairly or unfairly everything else is judged more harshly and through a microscope.